OttoVonB's Must See Films
A not-so-obvious list of films that could change your life.
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- DirectorAkira KurosawaStarsToshirô MifuneTakashi ShimuraKeiko TsushimaFarmers from a village exploited by bandits hire a veteran samurai for protection, who gathers six other samurai to join him.A strong contender for most entertaining film ever: the balance of character, story, pacing and action has a harmony I have seldom found since. Solid gold.
- DirectorTerry JonesStarsGraham ChapmanJohn CleeseMichael PalinBorn on the original Christmas in the stable next door to Jesus Christ, Brian of Nazareth spends his life being mistaken for a messiah.The funniest film ever made. No other summary can do it justice.
- DirectorOrson WellesStarsOrson WellesJeanne MoreauMargaret RutherfordWhen King Henry IV ascends to the throne, his heir, the Prince of Wales, is befriended by Sir John Falstaff, an old, overweight, fun-loving habitual liar. Through Falstaff's eyes we see the reign of King Henry IV and the rise of Henry V.Orson Welles' masterful ode to Shakespeare is the pinnacle of a compromised career. A towering central performance.
- DirectorAndrei TarkovskyStarsAlisa FreyndlikhAleksandr KaydanovskiyAnatoliy SolonitsynA guide leads two men through an area known as the Zone to find a room that grants wishes.Perhaps the most humanist film in existence, Tarkovsky's meditation on the depths of the human soul is like a bottomless well of riches.
- DirectorRidley ScottStarsSigourney WeaverTom SkerrittJohn HurtThe crew of a commercial spacecraft encounters a deadly lifeform after investigating a mysterious transmission of unknown origin.Fear can be beautiful, and it has never been more bewitching and terrifying than here.
- DirectorDavid LeanStarsPeter O'TooleAlec GuinnessAnthony QuinnThe story of T.E. Lawrence, the English officer who successfully united and led the diverse, often warring, Arab tribes during World War I in order to fight the Turks.There are reasons - beyond the unparalleled 70mm photography - that this film endures. Its razor-sharp script, its towering performances, and a man named David Lean at the peak of his powers. See this on the biggest screen you can find!
- DirectorFritz LangStarsPeter LorreEllen WidmannInge LandgutWhen the police in a German city are unable to catch a child-murderer, other criminals join in the manhunt.The best thriller ever? Yes. And even after 80 years, it's by a long shot.
- DirectorJoel CoenEthan CoenStarsJeff BridgesJohn GoodmanJulianne MooreJeff "The Dude" Lebowski, mistaken for a millionaire of the same name, seeks restitution for his ruined rug and enlists his bowling buddies to help get it.The Coens at their offbeat, quotable best, give you their most memorable characters. The Dude abides...
- DirectorHenry SelickStarsDanny ElfmanChris SarandonCatherine O'HaraJack Skellington, king of Halloween Town, discovers Christmas Town, but his attempts to bring Christmas to his home causes confusion.So fresh, so alive, so unique, Tim Burton and (almost more-so) Danny Elfmann's masterpiece will make you feel like a kid again.
- DirectorLars von TrierStarsBarbara SukowaJean-Marc BarrUdo KierJust after World War II, an American takes a railway job in Germany, but finds his position politically sensitive with various people trying to use him.It's Jean-Marc Barr's horrified idealist. It's the gorgeous photography. It's scenery-chewing from Eddie Constantine, Ernst-Hugo Järegård and the steamy Barbara Sukowa. It's the aura of doom...
It's Lars Von Trier's Europa! - DirectorIrvin KershnerStarsMark HamillHarrison FordCarrie FisherAfter the Rebel Alliance are overpowered by the Empire, Luke Skywalker begins his Jedi training with Yoda, while his friends are pursued across the galaxy by Darth Vader and bounty hunter Boba Fett.Of all George Lucas's magical saga, this episode remains the darkest, most mature and quite simply, the best!
- DirectorBarbet SchroederStarsIdi AminFidel CastroGolda MeirA documentary on the military dictator of Africa's Uganda.Think Kim Jong Il's home movies, and you're not even halfway there. See it to believe it.
- DirectorWolfgang PetersenStarsJürgen ProchnowHerbert GrönemeyerKlaus WennemannA German U-boat stalks the frigid waters of the North Atlantic as its young crew experience the sheer terror and claustrophobic life of a submariner in World War II.The best WWII film ever made, an endlessly rewarding masterclass in suspense and character.
- DirectorTerrence MalickStarsJim CaviezelSean PennNick NolteAdaptation of James Jones' autobiographical 1962 novel, focusing on the conflict at Guadalcanal during the second World War.Never has nature's indifference to our self-inflicted suffering been so heartbreaking and so mesmerizing. Even by putting the Big Bang itself on screen could Malick not top himself...
- DirectorRidley ScottStarsHarrison FordRutger HauerSean YoungA blade runner must pursue and terminate four replicants who stole a ship in space and have returned to Earth to find their creator.Ridley Scott defines mankind's vision of the future, invents techno-noir, and makes us wonder what makes us human, all in one film.
- DirectorMartin ScorseseStarsTenzin Thuthob TsarongGyurme TethongTulku Jamyang Kunga TenzinFrom childhood to adulthood, Tibet's fourteenth Dalai Lama deals with Chinese oppression and other problems.Not so much a narrative film as a spiritual ode, but with such poets at work - Scorsese, Glass, Deakins - you owe it to yourself to see this.
- DirectorKar-Wai WongStarsTony Leung Chiu-waiMaggie CheungSiu Ping-LamTwo neighbors form a strong bond after both suspect extramarital activities of their spouses. However, they agree to keep their bond platonic so as not to commit similar wrongs.The most heartbreaking and honest love-story ever committed to celluloid.
- DirectorChris MarkerStarsAmilcar CabralFlorence DelayArielle DombasleA woman narrates the contemplative writings of a seasoned world traveler, focusing on contemporary Japan.Chris Marker at his warmest and cleverest. You'll know what that guy felt like at the end of 2001 when he went through the stargate, as future, past and present collide in this tour-de-force.
- DirectorWerner HerzogStarsKlaus KinskiEva MattesWolfgang ReichmannFranz Woyzeck is a hapless, hopeless soldier, alone and powerless in society, assaulted from all sides by forces he can not control.Of all the stunning and unique Herzog/Kinski canon, this has the most immediacy and brutal honesty.
- DirectorPaul Thomas AndersonStarsDaniel Day-LewisPaul DanoCiarán HindsA story of family, religion, hatred, oil and madness, focusing on a turn-of-the-century prospector in the early days of the business.A triumph of minimalism, both in dialogue and in Day Lewis's miraculous performance.
- DirectorSergei EisensteinStarsNikolay CherkasovSerafima BirmanPavel KadochnikovAs Ivan the Terrible attempts to consolidate his power by establishing a personal army, his political rivals, the Russian boyars, plot to assassinate their Tsar.There's nothing else like it out there. Soviet cinematic art at its most delirious, baroque and intoxicating.
- DirectorLuis BuñuelStarsClaudio BrookSilvia PinalEnrique Álvarez FélixSimon, a deeply religious man living in the 4th century, wants to be nearer to God so he climbs a column. The Devil wants him to come down to Earth and is trying to seduce him.I have a soft spot for That Obscure Object of Desire, but in terms of pure irreverence of fun, it's hard to beat this little gem.
- DirectorRainer Werner FassbinderStarsBrigitte MiraEl Hedi ben SalemBarbara ValentinA lonely widow meets a much younger Moroccan worker in a bar during a rainstorm. They fall in love, to their own surprise and to the outright shock of their families, colleagues, and drinking buddies.It's hard to choose from Fassbinder's magnificent body of work, but this stands proudly beyond even the grand shadow of Berlin Alexanderplatz as one of the most disarming stories ever put to film.
- DirectorMasaki KobayashiStarsTatsuya NakadaiAkira IshihamaShima IwashitaWhen a ronin requesting seppuku at a feudal lord's palace is told of the brutal suicide of another ronin who previously visited, he reveals how their pasts are intertwined - and in doing so challenges the clan's integrity.The noble, violent and wounded love-child of Seven Samurai and The Wild Bunch, an absorbing build-up to a whirlwind of violence, anchored by one of Japan's most legendary actors.
- DirectorMartin ScorseseStarsWillem DafoeHarvey KeitelBarbara HersheyThe life of Jesus Christ, his journey through life as he faces the struggles all humans do, and his final temptation on the cross.Scorsese's testament is the best the Greatest Story has ever been told.
- DirectorSergei ParajanovStarsIvan MikolaychukLarisa KadochnikovaTatyana BestayevaA timeless Carpathian story - the young Ivan falls in love with the daughter of his father's killer among the Hutsul people of Ukraine.A visual whirlwind like no other, passion, poetry, madness. A cinematic breath of fresh air.
- DirectorJean-Luc GodardStarsBrigitte BardotJack PalanceMichel PiccoliA French writer's marriage deteriorates while working on Fritz Lang's version of "The Odyssey", as his wife accuses him of using her to court favor with the film's brash American producer.It's about love, it's about contempt, it's about art, it's about business, it's about cinema, it's Jean-Luc Godard's Le Mepris.
- DirectorGuillermo del ToroStarsIvana BaqueroAriadna GilSergi LópezIn the Falangist Spain of 1944, the bookish young stepdaughter of a sadistic army officer escapes into an eerie but captivating fantasy world.Every Guillermo Del Toro film is in some way or other a fairytale, an ode to monsters and the fantastical, and this is without a doubt his masterpiece. So far.
- DirectorHans-Jürgen SyberbergStarsHeinz SchubertPeter KernHellmut LangeDirector Hans-Jurgen Syberberg examines the rise and fall of the Third Reich in this brooding seven-hour masterpiece, which incorporates puppetry, rear-screen projection, and a Wagnerian score into a singular epic vision. Syberberg, who grew up under Nazi tyranny, ruminates on good and evil and the rest of humanity's complicity in the horrors of the holocaust.A staggering achievement, calling it an essay - which, at heart, it is - is reductionist in the extreme. If it were just an essay, it would still be a monument. As things stand, this is so, so much more.
- DirectorFrantisek VlácilStarsJosef KemrMagda VásáryováNada HejnaA grim portrayal of the shift from Paganism to Christianity in medieval central Europe - as a young virgin promised to God is kidnapped and raped by a marauder who her religious father seeks to kill in return.A beast caught between heaven and hell, this film is part Terrence Malick, part Werner Herzog. A gritty, almost ethnographic Medieval epic that needs to be seen to be believed.